Moving to Derwood MD area/trying to find a good daycare

My family (hubby with a 18 month old son)- are moving from NY to Derwood/Rockville area in probably Sep and Oct this year. We are wondering if anyone can recommend any good daycare to us? I checked online, Le Petite Academy and Childtime at Gaithersburg MD, Kindercare and Camp Olympia at Rockville all seem close to our new home.

Any one has experience/recommendation with those places? appreciate for your input and thoughts. Thx!

Comments (11)

We use La Petite and love it! My little one has been going for about two years now. My coworker has his child at Childtime and is very happy there, but I have never checked it out. Good luck and welcome!

Childtime in Gaithersburg is pretty good. I workedt here for just over a year (left when I had my DD). It's about 15 minutes north of Derwood and may be out of your way depending on where you'll be working. LaPetite in Gaithersburg is about 10 minutes north of Derwood. I interviewed there and thought the place looked nice, but was not hired so I don't know about the staff. Both those centers are run by the same parent company and do things similarly.

Please avoid Kindercare on Crabbs Branch (or any Kindercare, really). I worked at that specific location for a few weeks and went home in tears everyday. The outdoor play area is a disaster and the classrooms have no structure. The curriculum is all given to the teachers, so they just do as little as possible beyond that.

I don't know anything about the other place you mentioned. Depending on where you'll be working/living, you can check out Goddard in King Farm or Gaithersburg, Nanda Child Care Centers in Rockville, and Academy Child Development Centers in Rockville/North Potomac/Gaithersburg. I've heard a lot of positive feedback about all of them.

There are more options farther south into Rockville. Let me know if you have more questions. Sometimes it can be a bit difficult to find care around here for a child under 2. Good luck!

I bookmarked this thread as we might be moving to that area in spring of 2015 as well and will be looking for daycare/ preschool. I have a great Pediatrician recommendation for Gaithersburg/Rockville area if you are interested. We lived in Montgomery Village and moved to Fairfax. But we might move back there since DH's work moved to Gaithersburg again.

Thanks so much for all your great feedback and suggestion. I am 'ccmom0805' but I keep having log-in issue so I had to create a new account in order to reply!!

It appears le petite is a good choice and it's just about 5 min drive from my future place per google map! I will definitely check that place out when I move there. Have anyone heard of Goddard School? From map it's not too far for my home too.

I bookmarked this thread as we might be moving to that area in spring of...

Posted
08/06/2014

I bookmarked this thread as we might be moving to that area in spring of 2015 as well and will be looking for daycare/ preschool. I have a great Pediatrician recommendation for Gaithersburg/Rockville area if you are interested. We lived in Montgomery Village and moved to Fairfax. But we might move back there since DH's work moved to Gaithersburg again.

Good luck.

Hi there:
First thanks for your reply!
Yes that would be great if you can recommend me any good pediatrician! I looked online I saw Dr. Hirsh seems pretty popular but he only takes new born. I also saw ' Child First Pediatricians' about 10 min drive from my place. Not sure if they are good?
Thanks!

Hi just checking in to bookmark this. We too just moved from NY to Derwood and will maybe be starting daycare in Jan. I know many places have waitlists so we wanted to be proactive and start looking around now. Sad to hear Kindercare is a no-go because it is closest to us, but honestly every time I drive by there I think about how bad it looks so that doesn't totally surprise me. I'd love to hear other options, or reviews from people that have gone to any of the places in Gaithersburg!!

Goddard School is good but more expensive. I've heard the Gaithersburg one is better than the King Farm one, but both have good reputations.

As for pediatricians, we go to Children's Pediatricians and Associates on Quince Orchard Rd.. A lot of moms in our playgroup use Potomac Pediatrics. I think they're on Shady Grove Dr. or close to it.

Where in NY are you moving from? We're from the Albany area.

Also, just for future reference - be careful about using google maps (or similar) for this area. The distance in miles will be accurate but not usually the drive time. This is a high traffic area that can get very congested, especially duing rush hours.

Let me know if you have any more questions. I know there's a lot to figure out when you're moving with a young child!

Thank you Majaersa for the information. I will definitely check out the pediatricians you mentioned. We will be moving from Rohester area to Derwood MD hopefully by mid Oct this year. Yes I feel so overwhelmed with the moving as the decision just came up recently.
If you don't mind, I am really hoping I can ask more information :) like how to find play group when you got there to which moving company you used etc. if you prefer not to answer here. I can provide my email address!

I don't mind answering more questions. I know it can be a bit overwhelming to move to this area! We'll be moving ourselves next spring/summer.

My DD and I are in a meetup.com playgroup - go to meetup.com and search for "playdates in montgomery county". It is a large group of families with babies and kids newborn to elementry school age. I think there may be a few families from the Rochester area. A lot of the people living in this area are not from the area so you won't feel like an outsider.

I can't help with the moving company - sorry about that. We moved here from Rhode Island and did it ourselves (this was before DD was born) with help from my brother.

Hi there:
First thanks for your reply!
Yes that would be great if you can...

Posted
08/08/2014

Hi there:
First thanks for your reply!
Yes that would be great if you can recommend me any good pediatrician! I looked online I saw Dr. Hirsh seems pretty popular but he only takes new born. I also saw ' Child First Pediatricians' about 10 min drive from my place. Not sure if they are good?
Thanks!

We saw Dr. Gober. He is really kind and explains everything to you. He has a small practice. None of getting random caregivers at each visit. I wished I could still go to him. He shares his time between his offices in Rockville and Gaithersburg. Both location might be convenient for you. You can find his information on Healthgrades.com